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Abstract:

Pre- and postpartum deficiencies of metabolizable protein have been identified as
potentially limiting to productivity of beef cows and calves. Pre-partum supplementation
of forage-based diets with ruminally undegraded protein has increased weight gain
and breeding performance in prior studies, but the level of ruminally degraded protein
fed was not known. Feeding adequate ruminally degraded protein to beef cows maximizes
the productivity of microbes in the rumen, so any benefits shown in prior work
could have been attributed to increased ruminal fermentation.
Our objectives were (1) to determine the value of supplementing ruminally undegraded
protein when dietary ruminally degraded protein supply was estimated to be adequate
to support normal ruminal fermentation, and (2) to monitor the changes in intake and
digestion that precede parturition in beef cows fed low-quality, warm-season forage.